Tim Buckley Tim Buckley LP (Coke Clear Vinyl)

The incandescent voice of Tim Buckley took him on a journey from fragile folk rocker to boldly experimental avant-garde icon in nine short years of recordings. Here we capture him at the beginning of his career with his sparkling 1966 debut album, which featured the Elektra label's "A-Team" that produced the Doors: label owner and producer Jac Holzman, producer Paul Rothchild, and engineer Bruce Botnick. Not to mention such West Coast legends like arranger Jack Nitzsche, keyboardist Van Dyke Parks, and drummer Billy Mundi accompanying Buckley's long-time collaborators Lee Underwood on guitar and Jim Fielder on bass. To label Tim Buckley a promising first effort is to give it short shrift; the only aspect arguably holding this record back from being an utter masterpiece is the tentative timbre of Buckley's voice, but that's only in comparison to his late-career vocal acrobatics. And, in some ways, his "shyness" just lends an evanescent, vulnerable quality to the astonishingly sophisticated lyrical and melodic flights of this 19-year-old artist. Real Gone Music has remastered Tim Buckley for vinyl and pressed it in Coke clear vinyl…prepare to be transported.